Innovation in Chinese Medicine

A 2001 series of case-studies exploring the transformation of Chinese medicine over the centuries.

Elisabeth Hsu (Edited by)

9780521182591, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 17 February 2011

444 pages
24.6 x 18.9 x 2.3 cm, 0.79 kg

Review of the hardback: 'Innovation in Chinese Medicine is the most significant collection of works in English to date in the study of chinese medical history.' Medical History

In the West ideas about Chinese medicine are commonly associated with traditional therapies and ancient practices which have survived, unchanging, since time immemorial. Originally published in 2001, this volume, edited by Elizabeth Hsu, demonstrates that this is far from the reality. In a series of pioneering case-studies, twelve contributors, from a range of disciplines, explore the history of Chinese medicine and the transformations that have taken place from the fourth century BC onwards. Topics of discussion cover diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, pharmacotherapy, the creation of new genres of medical writing and schools of doctrine. This interdisciplinary volume will be of value to anyone with an interest in the various aspects of Chinese medicine.

Introduction Elisabeth Hsu
Part I. Mai and Qi in the Western Han: 1. The influence of nurturing life culture on the development of Acumoxa therapy Vivienne Low
2. Pulse diagnostics in the western Han: how mai and qi determine bing Elisabeth Hsu
Part II. Correlative Cosmologies: 3. Iatromancy, diagnosis, and prognosis in early Chinese medicine Donald Harper
4. The system of the five circulatory phases and the six seasonal influences, a source of innovation in medicine under the Song (960–1279) Catherine Despeux
Part III. Dietetics and Pharmacotherapy: 5. Dietetics in Tang China: beginnings of a specialised materia dietetica Ute Engelhardt
6. A Song innovation in pharmacotherapy: some remarks on 'white arsenic' and 'flowers of arsenic' Frederic Obringer
7. The Bencao gangmu (classified materia medica) of Li Shizhen - an innovation for natural history? Georges Metailie and Elisabeth Hsu
8. Robust northerners and delicate southerners: the nineteenth-century invention of a southern medical tradition Marta Hanson
Part V. Rise of the Genre of Medical Case Statements: 9. Yi'an (case statements) - the origins of a genre of Chinese medical literature Christopher Cullen
10. From case-records to case-histories: the modernisation of a Chinese medical genre, 1912–49 Bridie J. Andrews
Part VI. Medical Rationale in the People's Republic: 11 A new, scientific and unified medicine: civil war in China and the new Acumoxa, 1945–9 Kim Taylor
12. Shaping Chinese medicine: two case studies from contemporary China Volker Scheid.

Subject Areas: History of medicine [MBX]